Because He Lives
April 5, 2026
Welcome & Proclaiming Resurrection
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Let us rejoice in this day and be glad in it! Alleluia!
If you have an Alleluia butterfly, you can wave it every time we say Alleluia, if you like! And, parents, if your kiddos are interested, there are some coloring activities on the table at the back of the sanctuary. Heck, even adults are welcome to go color if it would help you not fall asleep in my sermon!
Welcome, everyone, to this day of celebration! The day we remember that Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. If this is your first time or your first time in a long time…blue card…email or comment. I hope you will enjoy the music from the choir and from Mom and daughter, Janene and Rachel, as well as all the Easter hymns we know and love.
So, instead of passing the peace as we typically do, we are going to proclaim the resurrection. I’ll say Christ is risen. You’ll say He is risen indeed and we’ll all say Alleluia and we’ll do it 3 times. Ready?
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Reading from the Gospels Matthew 28:1-10 (NLT)
28 Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. 2 Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. 3 His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow.4 The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint. 5 Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. 7 And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.” 8 The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great joy, and they rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message. 9 And as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid! Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”
Silence
Listen to the voice of the Spirit speaking to the church. Thanks be to God.
Resurrection Message
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
I never get tired of doing that. I don’t know if it’s because I’m trying to convince myself or if I’m trying to convince you. But as crazy as it sounds, it is still true. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.
You know, we’re in good company if we aren’t sure what to believe about the Resurrection. Even the women, who went to the tomb in the Gospel of Mark’s earliest version and saw the angelic being who announced to them that Jesus wasn’t there, that he had risen, and that they should go tell the disciples, were scared out of their wits and ran away from the tomb and told no one.
But that’s not today’s version of the story. Today is Matthew’s version, and in it there are two women – Mary Magdalene and the other Mary – who come to the tomb, experienced the earthquake, and saw an angel sitting on the stone which the angel had rolled away from the entrance. They heard the angel telling them Jesus wasn’t there, that he had risen, and that they should go tell the disciples. Then they actually saw the risen Jesus for themselves. He told them the same thing. They were also frightened out of their wits, but they did go tell the disciples.
I was reading Diana Butler Bass’s blog and she pointed out something that was different about Matthew’s account.
Why did the women go to the tomb on Sunday morning? [responses: To prepare Jesus’ body., It was the first time they could get there after the Sabbath. To take the spices to prepare the body.]
Matthew’s Gospel does not mention anything about spices: “Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb.” You may remember that these two Marys and some other women had stayed near the cross when most of the men had fled. They followed and watched Joseph of Arimathea as he took Jesus’ body to his own tomb, wrapped him in a cloth, and laid him there, then rolled the stone in front of the entrance. The next morning they went back to the tomb. They went fully expecting to see that Jesus had risen just like he said he would. Even before the earthquake, even before the guards stationed there fell over in a faint, even before the angel sitting on the stone in front of the now-open tomb, they were certain Jesus would rise again. And, boy, did they get an eye- and earful!
I love their certainty. I love their faith. I love that they heard what Jesus kept telling the disciples and believed it would happen. They may not have understood it any better than any of the other disciples, but when events began to unfold there in Jerusalem, when Jesus was arrested then sentenced to die, when they watched as he was put to death on the cross, they began to put two and two together and they began to hope. They mourned Jesus’ death on the Sabbath. But on the third day, they were up early and went to the tomb to wait and watch as the sun rose on that new day and weren’t surprised when there was an earthquake, weren’t surprised when the angel appeared and rolled away the stone and then sat on it, weren’t surprised when the angel told them Jesus was not there, weren’t surprised when they looked inside and saw no body lying there, weren’t surprised when the angel said Jesus had risen just as he said. Terrified by what they saw? Yes. Surprised? No. Full of joy? Definitely.
And as they ran to tell the other disciples what they had witnessed, there was Jesus himself, risen, touchable, speaking to them – speaking to them! We can almost feel their fear and amazement and excitement and joy. Jesus didn’t let them linger, though. He sent them on a mission to tell the others, to send them from where they were hiding back to Galilee where it had all started and he would meet them there. And Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, believed!
I’m wondering. What made them so certain? And what difference does it make for us?
These women had cared for Jesus. I don’t mean it like, “I care for you, Jesus,” although I’m sure they did care for him in that way too. I mean they took care of him. They helped finance him and provided for his and the other disciples’ needs. They arranged for the meals and maybe also cooked them. They found places for them to sleep. They suggested good spots for them to stop and hear his teachings. They recognized when he was exhausted and needed to get away. They were with him over the last three years as he healed people and fed them and welcomed them. And he included them, these women, as equals. They were his friends and they learned right alongside the men.
These women had seen who Jesus was. They had witnessed the integrity with which he spoke and acted. They knew his heart. They knew he loved them. They knew if he said something was going to happen, they could believe it. They might not fully understand it, but they knew it to be true.
Their hands were empty when they went to the tomb that morning because their minds were open and their hearts were expectant. They came to the tomb that morning with their hands empty. They left with their hearts full.
We don’t know what happened that morning. The Gospel accounts don’t all agree on the details. We can’t know for sure and many minds with more wisdom than mine have lots of ideas about what it all means. In her book A Beautiful Year, Diana Butler Bass says
Whatever happened on that morning a long time ago, it keeps happening – to me and to millions of others in thousands of ways in a multitude of times and places. I’m less worried about what happened then than how we experience and practice it now.
Even the earth practices resurrection every year. We see it as the trees start to bud and little leaves appear, as the colors of the daffodils and the lilacs and the crocuses and the redbuds begin to show again, and as the animals get all “twitter-painted” as Thumper tells Bambi in the movie of that name.
We see it in lives that are transformed when they experience Jesus either personally or through the acts of someone who follows Jesus’ way. We see it in our own lives as we practice our faith and we begin to experience the incremental changes and sometimes great leaps into being more and more like Jesus.
Will you pray with me?
O God, we have experienced your son’s resurrection one more time as we woke up this morning and as we’ve joined one another now in worship of you. We pray for certainty like the women who went to the tomb that day, but even in our doubts, we know you love us and that resurrection is possible in our own lives. Help us to believe. Help us to come with empty hands but certainty in our hearts. We pray in the name of the Christ who is risen and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
Call to Commitment
Practice resurrection today. Practice joy. May your hearts and minds be filled with both. Go to the tomb with empty hands and expect everything. You won’t be disappointed.